Page 80 of Misfit Monsters
30
Periwinkle
Iget the feeling we’re heading into trouble before Jonah has even parked on the gravel driveway that belongs to Ted McGaffery.
There’s nothing I can put my finger on. Across the yard, the two-storey house looms quiet and still. The yellow clapboard siding has transformed into a dingy beige most places, but I can’t imagine house painters are in large supply all the way up here. No artificial light glimmers in any of the windows, which isn’t surprising when it’s late morning.
Not that it’s particularly bright out here. The gray clouds smothering the sky only add to the ominous mood. When I step out of the van, a damp breeze licks over my skin.
I pull up my hood both to conceal my hair and to ward off the chill. Why does the wilderness have to be so spookyhalf of the time?
The house stands in a cleared span of lawn about ten times bigger than the house’s foundation. A patchy garden lies to the left of the house, sprawling to a rocky hillside. Tall pines surround us on all other sides like a fence that’s sprouted.
A pick-up truck is parked farther down the driveway by a shed not quite large enough to serve as a garage. If Ted is the only person who lives here, that should mean he’s home, unless he has more than one car.
Jonah walks tentatively toward the house. “Mr. McGaffery? We’ve just come up from Pilverton.”
His voice rings through the hush of the wilderness. If the house’s owner is around, he should have heard our engine several minutes before we reached the house, crawling along that narrow dirt lane.
No one comes to the door or any of the windows. As Hail makes an impatient sound, Jonah strides toward the porch.
He’s still a few paces away from the stairs when a stronger gust of wind washes over us—and the front door swings open with a squeal of its hinges.
I’d jump out of my skin if it was looser. Raze springs to my side in an instant. Mirage lets out an uneasy hum.
Jonah has frozen in his tracks. “Mr. McGaffery?” he tries again.
No one appears on the threshold. It looks like the door was unlocked and blown open by the wind.
But if the owner is home, why isn’t he answering? If heisn’there, then where has he gone?
Jonah walks to the door and leans his head inside. He calls out a few more times to no response before turning back to us.
“He doesn’t seem to be home. I don’t feel right trampingin there when we don’t know what’s going on. We could start by looking around outside, and maybe he’ll come back.”
“Seek and you shall find!” Mirage declares, and springs off to inspect the shed.
Hail aims a cool glance at me and Raze before heading toward the trees. “I’ll see if I notice anything unusual in the woods.”
I watch him go, only picking up a trace of indecipherable emotion from him. A wobble runs through my pulse.
The winter fae tried to be sweet with me last night—to get closer with me than I’d ever have thought he’d want to. There was something thrilling about having him let down his guard and reach out to me.
But hedidn’ttotally want to. Why would he touch me or kiss me if it unsettled him? Even if he kind of liked it too.
And he got angry when I tried to talk to him about it, which means it’s probably bothering him even more than I could tell.
Is this some complicated fae thing I’ve never learned about?
I shake off those thoughts and nudge Raze. “Let’s see what’s around back.”
Whatever’s going on with Hail, he couldn’t have made it more obvious that he doesn’t want me meddling. If I’ve learned anything from my time at the academy, it’s that trying to soothe emotions people don’t even want to admit they’re having only pisses them off.
If he ever decides he wants to open up properly, it’s not like I’m hard to find.
As we approach the side of the house, my skin starts creeping. Scratch marks mottle the siding, some thin and shallow, others deep gouges.
Apparently some beast decided it needed to claw the house down, and I don’t think it was a big bad wolf.
